The Real Reason/Excuse for going to Hawaii

About a month and a half ago we received an email from my husband's niece, who lives in Hawaii. She excitedly told everyone that the adoption of her little boy was going to be made official the next month and that they would be having his blessing and sealing soon. She also invited anyone who would like to come to Hawaii to come for the events. When the topic came up later when talking with Grandma, she made it clear she really wanted to go but didn't know if they, meaning Grandma and Grandpa would be able to travel alone. Since it has been the dream of my kids to go to Hawaii. Remember Hawaii is where Henry has already decided he wanted to go on his Mission and Sophie did a report recently on Hawaii and is trying hard to earn the money to buy the American Girl doll of the year which is from Hawaii, Kanani.  So we jumped at the chance to go. When would we ever find a better excuse to jump on a plane and head to paradise.

Here is little Ezra with his Dad heading into church on Sunday.

Isn't the chapel in Honolulu beautiful! It is hard to believe this is right downtown.

It isn't often you will find a mosaic of Jesus Christ on any LDS buildings.  It is well designed to deal with the heat and humidity of Hawaii. Lots of open courtyards and high ceilings.

Molly didn't have any trouble going to Nursery. She never does. She loves to play and doesn't care that Mom and Dad aren't around.

The other kids thought it was so fun that they got Lei for being visitors to primary.

This cute little girl is a friend of the family and we got to see her hula at the Lu'au we attended at the PCC.  She too was visiting this ward on Sunday and had a great time with our kids.

A few days later we got to head up to Laie to see the Temple.

The grounds are so beautiful.

When you take a close look at the temple there is a relief carving along the top.

Here is a close up of the front one. Each of the four sides is a different scene from the life of Christ.

Here is a whole group who came to the Temple to be with the family on this special day.

The Temple looks right out to the Ocean.

Here is all the family that attended.

Here is the Happy Mom, Dad and Ezra.

While we were up in this part of the island we took a little drive through the BYU-Hawaii campus.

They have the same motto "Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve" posted at the entrance just he BYU in Provo.

It certainly seemed like a small campus in comparison to the BYU in Provo which is all I know to compare it to.  I asked the kids if they thought it would be fun to come here for college. They actually decided they would rather go to Provo. We have ingrained that pretty well I guess. Or maybe it was the rain and heat that they were experiencing that was making Hawaii a little less appealing.

It was a lovely day!